Kelly Denk

English & AVID Elective Teacher II Head Varsity Soccer Coach

[UW-La Crosse @UWLaCrosse]

🌟🦅 UWL has been named a top public university in a new ranking by Stacker!

🥇 Stacker highlighted several of UWL’s strengths: student-to-faculty ratio (18:1), graduate rate (71%) and employment rate two years after graduation (96%).

Read more: 🔗 https://t.co/qtkJNJscgF

[Craig Doty @CoachDoty]

Reasons to hire an athlete:

•They are used to working under pressure.

•They understand that doing work outside of working hours is where they’ll gain their advantage.

•They’ve endured success and defeat; they’ve handled winning and managed adversity.

•They understand personal accolades without team success is futile.

•They’ve learned how to manage their time and balance many responsibilities at the same time.

•They are used to being coached, making adjustments, and achieving results.

•They have produced in high stress environments

•They understand building trust, showing improvement, and earning results is the way to advance their role within an organization.

•They embrace authority and being held accountable.

•They relish in the success of their teammates.

[Grace Price @travelingenes]

Most people think that cancer hits you randomly, affects one body part, and is a death sentence.

But cancer is quite the opposite.

It stems from years of poor metabolic health, often due to the Average American Diet.

It mirrors our cellular terrain and is largely preventable.

Thank you for having me @FanchonStinger!

[Midwest vs. The Rest @midwestern_ope]

Spring

Expectation Reality

[𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐝 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 @DrBradJohnson]

Why you shouldn't worry about what others say.

[HHS Athletics @GoHHSathletics]

Charlie Millard 2024 2x Consecutive WIAA State Wrestling Champion!!

[Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness @coachajkings]

Pat Summitt said, “Winning is fun... Sure. But winning is not the point. Wanting to win is the point. Not giving up is the point. Never letting up is the point. Never being satisfied with what you've done is the point."

Your character is what you do.

Good character isn't about perfection, it's choosing to live your life with integrity, responsibility, and self-discipline.

You aren't defined by your victories or defeats, but by your attitude and character in the face of adversity.

You demonstrate it through your actions, decisions, and how you treat people.

6 Choices to Be a Person of Character 👇
Choose to Live Your Values - Align your actions and behaviors with your core beliefs and principles. Living your values means making choices that reflect what truly matters to you. It brings authenticity, integrity, and a sense of purpose to your your life. This consistency between belief and behavior builds trust and respect from others, and provides a guiding light for your decisions.

Choose to Live Your Purpose - Identify what drives you and gives your life meaning. By choosing to live your purpose, you focus your efforts on goals that are genuinely important to you. This gives you direction, clarity, and a deep sense of fulfillment as you contribute to something greater than yourself. It means making a positive impact and finding satisfaction in your journey.

Choose Integrity over Convenience - Choose to do the right, even when it's not easy or convenient. Integrity involves being honest and having strong moral principles. It means standing by your values even in challenging situations, which earns you respect and self-respect. Choose integrity often leads to long-term success over short-term gains.

Choose to Be Your Authentic-Self -Embrace and express your true self, with all its strengths and vulnerabilities. Being authentic means closing the gap between who you truly are and who you present to the world. It fosters genuine connections with others and allows you to live freely and confidently, staying true to who you are.

Choose to Care for People -Show empathy and compassion towards others. Caring for people involves actively listening, understanding their feelings, and helping when needed. This choice not only impacts the lives of others positively but also enriches your own life, fostering a sense of community and connection.

Choose Humility and Growth - Recognize that there's always room for improvement. Choosing humility and growth means being open to learning and feedback, acknowledging your limitations, and constantly seeking to better yourself. This mindset leads to personal development and a deeper understanding of both yourself and the world around you.

"The absolute heart of loyalty is to value those people who tell you the truth, not just those people who tell you what you want to hear. In fact, you should value them most." - Pat Summitt
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Follow @coachajkings for more posts like this!

[Kelly Denk @denk_kell17]

Make yourself a person that handles hard well, not someone that's waiting for the easy.

[Teddy Mitrosilis @TMitrosilis]

Two summers ago, Kara Lawson was speaking to her Duke basketball team.

She wanted them to shift their mindset.

What followed was 2+ minutes of gold on how to be successful.

Here’s Lawson on embracing hard things:

“We all wait in life for things to get easier. Think in your own life. I just gotta get through this, and then it'll be easy … It's what we do. We wait for stuff to get easier.

“It will never get easier. What happens is you handle hard better.

“Most people think life is gonna get easier. Basketball is gonna get easier. School is gonna get easier. It never gets easier. What happens is you become someone that handles hard stuff better.

“That's a mental shift that has to occur and each of your brains. If you go around waiting for stuff to get easier in life, it's never going to happen. And then what happens? Oh, it's so hard. Oh, I can't do it. When is it going to be easy for me? Oh, it's easy for other people.

“It's not. It's hard. And the second we see you handling hard better, what are we gonna do? We're gonna make it harder. Because we're preparing you for when you leave here. Not just basketball – in life.

“And if you think life when you leave college is going to all of a sudden get easy because you graduated and you got a degree, it's not going to get easier. It's going to get harder.

“Make yourself a person that handles hard well, not someone that's waiting for the easy. Because if you have a meaningful pursuit in life, it will never be easy. If you're trying to win a championship, if you're trying to have a family … Ask your parents. Do you think it was ever easy for them?

“If you want to be successful, it goes to the people that handle hard well. Those are the people that get the stuff they want … If it's hard, don't get discouraged. It's supposed to be. Don't wait for it to be [easy]. It won't.

"Make yourself someone that handles hard well, and then whatever comes, you're going to be great.”

–

My takeaways:

1. This isn’t about sports. It’s about building a business, building a family, building a community, being a valuable citizen and every other meaningful thing in life.

2. “Hard” doesn’t mean “bad.” There can be joy in hard things.

3. There’s a Haitian proverb: “Behind mountains are more mountains.” There’s always another one to climb.

4. What you see on social media is a facade. People make their lives look glamorous online. Behind the screen is a human being struggling through their journey.

5. None of us are immune to difficulty (even if some try to appear that way).

6. “Easy” is convenient, “hard” is fulfilling. What satisfies you in the short-term robs you in the long run.

7. Have you ever heard someone tell a story about how easy a great achievement was?

8. “Easy choices hard life, hard choices easy life” misses the point. We shouldn’t seek an easy life to begin with.

9. Instead, build your capacity for difficult things. Then find joy in the process of handling those things.

10. No meaningful life travels an easy road.

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Hope this is helpful. Follow me @TMitrosilis for more writing.

I also write a weekly newsletter on the process of improvement → https://t.co/Akm89Spodg

[Tony Navarre @navarre17]

Man - all the things in one clip. Leadership. Team Unity. Perseverance. Character. Grit. @Showtyme_33 one of the greatest @packers all time!

[Kelly Denk @denk_kell17]

It feels really good to be excited about the @packers again. Regardless of what happens, Jordan Love has me pumped for Packer Sundays again! #gopackgo

[The Sport Parent @TheSportParent]

Don’t sign your kid up for youth sports so they can get prepared for college athletics. Sign your kid up for youth sports so they can enjoy their youth with their friends!

~ via @Nick_Buonocore

[Jon Beck @CoachJonBeck]

Parents: Teach kids that their relationship with their coach is THEIR relationship. They have to take the initiative to work out issues instead of depending on you to do it. Don’t intervene on their behalf unless it’s absolutely necessary. That kind of independence is invaluable!

[Greg Berge @GregBerge]

Being a Head Coach is HARD Work. I have talked to MANY coaches over my long career. Here are 9 Things Coaches Want Parents to Understand.

[Kelly Denk @denk_kell17]

So dang proud of this former Highlander.

[Kelly Denk @denk_kell17]

@UWL_Soccer will be winning best dressed at daycare today.

[Jon Beck @CoachJonBeck]

God may have given you the talent to be a 5-Star recruit, but a coach’s/parent’s job is to help you become a 5-Star person. That’s hard; it means no enabling/no babying. It means pushing you out of your comfort zone & holding you accountable. Everything else takes care of itself!

[Craig Doty @CoachDoty]

Upperclassmen: The impact you make on your program goes beyond wins and losses. 10-year old kids are watching you and emulating you. Freshman and Sophomores are learning how to practice and compete daily by you. You are changing the future for better or worse. Leave your legacy!

[Greg Berge @GregBerge]

Yes, Coaches Play Favorites.

But they don’t play the favorites parents think they do.

Here are 7 FAVORITES that coaches play.

[Jon Beck @CoachJonBeck]

If D1 schools aren’t reaching out to you, you may not be a D1 player & that’s ok. Don’t be married to the level. Be married to the right academic fit for you. Stay in the gym. Keep getting better & then use the game to cement your future. College degrees don’t say D1, D2 or D3!

[HHS Athletics @GoHHSathletics]

Get ready for the 23=24 Homestead Athletic season and register today! In order to participate in tryouts/practice all students need to be REGISTERED AND CLEARED by the athletic office by the Wednesday prior to the start date. https://t.co/oWzVaHPSGX @mtschools